Researchers
at RIT are taking a close look at the Great Lakes' water quality
using a combination of remote sensing imagery and modeling of
lake dynamics. John Schott, director of the Digital Imaging and
Remote Sensing Laboratory (DIRS) at the Chester F. Carlson Center
for Imaging Science, is one of 14 researchers on NASA's Landsat
7 satellite research team. DIRS scientists are investigating water
temperature trends in the Great Lakes.

Hyperspectral
imaging (HSI) sensors collect multichannel, narrow spectral band
imagery spanning from the visible to the infrared portion of the
electromagnetic spectrum (1, 2, 3). A joint project between RIT
and Eastman Kodak Company uses MISI and Airborne Visible InfraRed
Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) (2) imagery to determine if HSI
technology can measure water quality concentrations such as chlorophyll.

While
remote sensing can detect surface temperature, four-dimensional
(x, y, z and time) hydrodynamic models can provide scientists
with a more complete understanding of the Great Lakes' internal
mechanisms (8, 9). The yellow sections in the top row of figure
8, for instance, represent a thermal bar, a warm ring of near-shore
water that forms in the early spring. As the season grows warmer,
this ring moves to the deeper open waters. RIT's imaging scientists
calibrae the hydrodynamic model with Advanced Very High Radiometric
Resolution (AVHRR) satelite imagery (10).